With no end in sight to the war of attrition between Government Chief Whip P C George and a vast majority opposed to him within the Kerala Congress, party supremo and Finance Minister K M Mani has issued an ultimatum that stern disciplinary action will be initiated against those leaders who aired their differences of opinion in public.
Mani also made it clear that using derogatory language to tarnish and insult any leader will not be tolerated anymore in the party.
“If there is any grievance for anyone in the party, it should be aired in party forums and not in the public,’’ Mani replied, when asked by mediapersons here for his reaction about George’s latest vitriolic outburst on Thursday morning that “none could prevent him from speaking out.” Mani added that the P C George issue was discussed in the steering committee meet of the party held a couple of days ago and it was decided not to take any action against George.
“Even then, if the trend continues, the only option left(against both George and his opponents) is to take disciplinary action,” Mani told ‘Express’ earlier, on the sidelines of a news conference.
P C George had taken the bait forwarded by mediapersons at Kottayam earlier in the day, by stating that it may be those belonging to the P J Joseph faction who might have leaked a letter submitted by them against him to K M Mani. He also said that the leakage was “intended to belittle the party chairman.” The remarks of George were an add on to his earlier ones delivered on Wednesday, in which he had stated that the two MLAs
who were signatories to the letter are ‘mentally unstable’ and the place of the letter “will be in the waste basket.” Meanwhile, two staunch P J Joseph loyalists, Mons Joseph MLA and party state general secretary Antony Raju, on Thursday came out in the open against George. Mons claimed that none among them had leaked the letter and it is for party chairman K M Mani to act against those who are undermining his authority by violating his stern directive not to indulge in open debate on party issues.
Antony Raju went a step further and stated that the stand of P C George “does not bode well for party unity’’, in an oblique reference to reports that the P J Joseph faction was becoming more and more restive, in addition to the strong reservations expressed by even senior leaders and MLAs aligned with K M Mani itself.